Lefteris Voyatzis and I were first introduced in 1994 during the shooting of “Acropol”, a film by Pantelis Voulgaris. Lefteris was the lead and I, being a former assistant director to Pantelis, was there helping out as one of the extras. I admired and respected Lefteris more than anyone else in the theatre and beyond. Therefore getting to know him meant a lot to me. We maintained a warm, sincere and meaningful relationship over the years and until his death.
Each year, at the end of the season, he would call George Skevas and myself to shoot the last performance on two cameras.
In May 2011, like every other year, he called me to film him in the last performance of Pinter's “Hothouse”, which he had staged and also held the main part. On that very occasion, George Skevas could not make it, so I went there alone.
Waiting for the performance to begin, I thought of filming Lefteris as he was making last-minute preparations, going over his lines with his assistant and looking around for (his P.A) Christos, as usual. In between, he would walk up to me and talk on camera. I went on to record the performance of the play.
Lefteris was already ill, but nobody knew; above all he didn’t know himself.
The following year his health deteriorated. He managed to stage “Amphitryon” by Moliere, at Epidaurus, but obviously couldn't play in it and was preparing to revive the "Hothouse" with a different cast, which was scheduled to open at the Athens Festival, in the spring of 2013. But he was getting worse and, in the end, he decided to cast George Gallos as a possible understudy. He eventually passed away on 2 May 2013.
That footage, captured two years earlier, turned out to be Lefteris' last time on stage as an actor.
This brief, but invaluable and moving film, that captured Lefteris' time of preparation and his last performance, was made in collaboration with editor Myrto Lekatsa.
The title intentionally alludes both to the literal meaning of the word “stage” (in Greek, “scene”), and to the original name Lefteris had chosen for his ensemble (“I Skini”, the stage), working always at the same place, at the theatre on Kykladon street.
